


Say Something That Means Something To You

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Series: Perryshmirtz Week 2018 [1]
Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, POV Third Person Limited, Panic Attacks, Pre-Relationship, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 22:51:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16314143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: After remembering a pretty horrific backstory, Doofenshmirtz really isn’t up to building an -inator for the occasion. Properly concerned about Heinz, Perry makes sure his nemesis is alright.





	Say Something That Means Something To You

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill for the first day of Perryshmirtz Week!! Prompt was _angst/backstory_ and I,,, kinda did both. 
> 
> Title is taken from the song _Going To Mars_ by Judah and the Lion.

“You’re probably wondering why I don’t have an -inator or an evil plan today, right, Perry the Platypus?”

Perry startles, whipping around to face… nothing? That can’t be right. He  _ just  _ heard Heinz, and he knows that he would already know if the mad scientist had figured out a way to turn himself invisible. 

“Come here, Perry the Platypus. I don’t want to yell.” 

Oh. He’s on the couch. 

Perry frowns, making his way slowly towards the gaudy purple sofa, a strong sense of trepidation the only thing keeping him from stepping any quicker. If this is a trap, it’s a fairly elaborate one. He wouldn’t put it past Heinz, though. After years of thwarting him, Perry doesn’t put  _ anything  _ past Heinz anymore. 

“There you are. Come here.” Heinz is lying on the couch with a blanket covering most of his body. His head is just barely poking out, and he’s squinting at Perry. When Perry looks a little more closely, he can see one of what he assumes is Heinz’s hands wiggling underneath the blanket in apparent invitation.

Perry gives Heinz a cursory, curious once-over of a look and then accepts the offered seat, gingerly climbing up onto the couch. He sits straight-backed, not leaning against Heinz, but not uncomfortable with the sudden lack of distance between them, either. Their movie nights have long-since beaten any awkwardness of being close from their relationship. (Perry knows it isn’t the proper way for nemeses to behave, but he can never quite find it in himself to care whenever the moments come.) 

“I know I was supposed to have an -inator,” Heinz says, continuing what he’d started saying when Perry had pushed his way in through a window. “I just… haven’t been feeling up to it.” There’s something wrong, something  _ more wrong  _ than Heinz’s usual brand of wrong, going on here. Heinz isn’t looking at him, but the hand near Perry’s seated form is fidgeting, presumably with whatever clothing Heinz is wearing. If Heinz doesn’t do anything  _ evil  _ on an evil plot day, there’s usually something more dangerous at stake.

Perry leans forward and nudges his paw against the remote, glancing back at Heinz in an obvious question. 

The sound of the remote clicking against the coffee table gets Heinz’s attention. “What? Oh— Oh, no, Perry the Platypus. We don’t need a movie day. I’m not sick.” He falls silent again without further explanation, leaving Perry feeling both concerned and frustrated. Trust Heinz to suddenly lose his rambling nature just when it would finally be helpful. 

“I remembered something,” Heinz says in a small voice, a few minutes later. It breaks the silence, and Perry’s fur stands a little on edge at the statement, because with Heinz… backstory is backstory is backstory, but Heinz’s backstories carry a particular brand of pain that Perry can hardly ever begin to imagine happening to anyone, much less the man that’s become so dear to him despite the technical nature of their relationship. If  _ this  _ backstory is so bad that Heinz has decided to become a blanket-hermit, Perry can’t help but fear the memory at hand. 

Perry shifts, turning a little more fully towards Heinz. He catches the flash of fear in the man’s eyes, the peremptory hurt of betrayal, before it trickles away as Heinz no-doubt realises that Perry isn’t going anywhere. A ridiculous protectiveness settles itself in Perry’s chest, and he reaches for Heinz despite knowing he shouldn’t, settling a paw gently on his blanketed form.

Heinz takes this, rightly so, as a signal to go on. He heaves a sigh —Perry realises that his paw must be resting on Heinz’s hip, the way he feels the breath— and shuts his eyes tightly. “I was still a small child when my brother  _ Roger _ was born.” Even in the state he’s in, Heinz still musters up enough spite to sneer Roger’s name. It’s endearing, Perry thinks absently, and then hates himself for the thought. “My father didn’t want me to go to the hospital with him when he went to visit my mother. So he left me at home with my—“ Heinz shudders and cuts himself off abruptly. Perry can feel him trembling, now, and he squeezes Heinz’s hip reassuringly. Without warning, one of Heinz’s hands finds its way out of the blanket and grips Perry’s paw tightly. Perry winces a little —Heinz has a  _ hard  _ grip, especially since his hands are so much bigger than Perry’s own paws— but he doesn’t pull away. Instead, he brings his other paw to cover Heinz’s hand as much as he can, patting it soothingly.

“My father had a brother,” Heinz states, eyes still closed. It obviously isn’t what Heinz had been trying to say when he’d cut himself off, but Perry is willing to wait for him to get back on track. While this is the first time a backstory has been this… debilitating, Perry is more than used to Heinz’s rambling. “He didn’t always stay in Gimmelshtump. No, he was always travelling. I think he sold shoes, or something? Maybe it was clocks… or… pet badgers? Ugh.” Heinz huffs. Perry continues to pat his hand. “It doesn’t matter. Forgive me, Perry the Platypus.” Heinz’s eyes open to peer at Perry for a moment, and Perry notices only then that they’re rimmed red, as though the human has been crying. “I seem to be missing the point.”

Perry squeezes his hand reassuringly with the paw not still being crushed to death in Heinz’s hand, and Heinz smiles at him. Or rather, it’s obvious that Heinz  _ tries  _ to smile at him. The attempt doesn’t reach his watery eyes, and the expression falls flat on his tortured features. 

“My father left me at home. In our house. The house that I lived in, that I was a lawn gnome outside of for years? You remember  _ that  _ backstory.” Of course Perry does. The lawn gnome backstory gets brought up quite a bit. “I wasn’t a lawn gnome then. I was just Heinz the dummkopf.” Perry frowns in protest, but Heinz either doesn’t see it or ignores it entirely. “He told his brother to make sure I didn’t get into any trouble.” Trembling. Perry can feel the trembling start again, the miniscule shaking in Heinz’s hands. 

Perry  _ chhhirrs _ softly, and Heinz shakes his head, the blankets shifting against his hair. “I’m sorry, Perry the Platypus,” he says. His breathing has picked up, Perry notices. He scoots closer to Heinz, who doesn’t do anything to stop him. “Sorry, I’m— I— I didn’t think that a backstory could—  _ do  _ this, Perry— Perry the Platypus.” He shudders hard, squeezing his eyes closed again. “He was  _ cruel _ ,” Heinz says, in between the pants for breath that he’s started heaving. Perry removes his paw from atop Heinz’s hand and curls his body against Heinz’s without thinking, wrapping his arm around Heinz’s stomach, paw just barely reaching his back. 

It takes Heinz a minute to react to that. For a moment, the only sound is Heinz’s breathing, the only movement his quivering. And then, he pushes himself upright, and Perry doesn’t have any time to even attempt escape as Heinz wraps his arms around him and tugs him close. Blanket or not, Heinz really can  _ move  _ when he wants to, and Perry finds himself held close and tight as Heinz suddenly buries his face against the fur on the back of his neck. 

It isn’t a bad place to be, Perry decides a moment later, twisting his arm so that he can reach Heinz’s arm. He pats it as soothingly as he can, albeit a little awkwardly with the angle he’s at. Heinz doesn’t seem to mind. Instead, he presses against Perry, and Perry revels in the warmth Heinz provides, even though he knows he’ll hate himself for it later. 

“Maybe I  _ could _ use a movie day after all.” When Heinz finally speaks, his voice is rough. Perry is almost certain that his fur is damp, and he’s willing to bet that Heinz has just managed to calm himself from crying. Perry wiggles in Heinz’s grip, and the arms around him loosen enough for him to escape if he wanted. 

He doesn’t want to escape. Instead, Perry only twists so that he can look up, effectively placing himself neatly in Heinz’s lap. Heinz blinks down at him in surprise. “What are you doing, Perry the Platypus?” Perry only smiles at him, prompting a frown with that little bit of sparkle in it that Perry knows means that Heinz is feeling better.

“Perry the Platypus, why do you have to be so  _ mysterious  _ all the time?” he complains. Perry shrugs a little with his shoulders. He  _ knows  _ this Heinz. This is a Heinz that is okay, that’s not on the verge of a mental breakdown. Perry prides himself on his ability to get him back from that dark place. 

It scares him a little, that he’s so close to his nemesis, but he won’t let himself dwell on it now. That’s a thought for later, for the dark of night when he’s alone in his basket downstairs at the Flynn-Fletcher house. He doesn’t want to bother Heinz with his feelings, especially when Heinz has so many of those on his own. 

Perry points to the remote, and Heinz huffs. “Fine, fine. But we’re watching my soap opera if it’s on,” he states, obviously intending the words to come as a threat. Perry only rolls his eyes fondly, turning in Heinz’s lap so that he’s facing the television. Heinz turns it on, and as he fiddles with the settings, Perry settles more comfortably against him, ignoring the nagging voice in his head that was telling him how much he’d regret this later. 

A few minutes later, Heinz finally has his soap opera playing on the TV, and Perry finds himself being tugged underneath Heinz’s blanket until he’s tucked in liked a stuffed animal against Heinz’s chest. It’s a little warm for his liking, but not too uncomfortably so. Perry closes his eyes and lets out a soft  _ chhirr _ , and Heinz absently scritches the back of his head as he gasps at something on the screen. 

All may not be well in their world, but for now… For now, it’s enough. 

**Author's Note:**

> Gonna try and do all the Pshmirtz day prompts, but we’ll see how that goes. 
> 
> As always, kudos/comments are love! Come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans.


End file.
